Catholic Problems in Western CanadaDaly, George Thomas
Religion
Catholic Problems in Western Canada
Daly, George Thomas
Catholic Church -- Canada
Action to be efficient and lasting must be organized. Grouping of
forces, co-ordination of efforts, are what we need most in the Church
of Canada. In the rank and file of the laity, hidden treasures of
enthusiasm, latent powers of energy go to waste, because there is no
leader to awaken them, or if aroused, no organization to direct them.
The policy of the Catholic Extension is to bring to vigorous activity
these long slumbering desires, to give an effective vent to the pent up
energies of the Catholic heart, to group all Catholic missionary work
for the conservation and propagation of the Faith in our mission
districts.
Have we not been working too much as separate units? Has not our zeal
been limited by the boundaries of our parishes and dioceses? What
activities have been absorbed by side-issues, while the great cause of
the Church at large should have occupied our attention! We were
deliberating . . . and the West was being lost to us! The time has
come to rally around the Church in our mission fields and prove
ourselves worthy of our name--"Christian" and our surname--"Catholic."
The policy, therefore, of the Extension is to enlist the organized
effort of every parish, of every diocese in a great missionary
movement, and to throw the weight of the Catholic influence of the East
into the immense field of our Western missions. It is not for the
promotion of any project, for the benefit of any particular section of
the Church in Canada, that the Extension Society exists. True genuine
Catholicity is the only inspiration of its activities.
This united action will manifest itself first and above all in
_prayer_. The preservation of the Faith, and the conversion of souls
are supernatural works depending primarily and in the final analysis on
the grace of God. Never has it been more necessary to emphasize this
trait of the Catholic Aspostolate. Confronted with elaborate schemes
of finance and the co-operative action of various denominations, we may
take lessons from them, but should never forget that there is something
more fundamental; we mean, the grace of God. Our prayer--the prayer of
every child, the prayer of every man and woman within the fold, the
prayer of every nun and priest, should be the prayer of the Master to
the Heavenly Father: "Send harvesters into the fields!" How powerful
should not that prayer be! How strong a binding link between the East
and the West!
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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